(gentle music) - This is what gets me excited.

I'm in my mid 40s, I'm using up the ends of asparagus.

This is like, where it's at for me in my life right now.

- This does what kind of gets us going.

- Yeah.

Wow!

Who needs drugs when you have the ends of asparagus?

- [Joel] I love it.

I love it.

- [Rachel] What if I told you that the peel stems and scraps you've been tossing out can be transformed into a delicious meal?

I'm Rachel Bell, host of "Your Last Meal Podcast," cookbook author, and longtime Seattle journalist.

Here on "The Nosh," we explore some of the region's most delicious stories, and today, we are getting scrappy.

(upbeat music) I am a huge proponent of the zero waste movement, but I still compost a fair amount of food.

So I called in an expert.

Joel Gamoran is one of the country's most well-known sustainable chefs.

- Hey buddy.

- Hey Joel!

He hosted a Hulu show called "Scraps" and wrote a cookbook called "Cooking Scrappy," where he shows home cooks how to turn their garbage into dinner.

He also hosts "Homemade Live" on PBS.

Hopefully we can create some zero waste cooking magic.

I want you to look through my fridge.

- Okay.

- And we'll kind of figure out what we could do with some of the vegetables in there.

- Okay.

This is called scrap your fridge.

Like I'm gonna scrap it.

Yeah.

- All right.

We're gonna get scrappy.

- Yes.

- This is kale from my garden.

- [Joel] Yes.

- [Rachel] It's wilted.

But what do you do with the stems?

- Oh my God.

The stems are crunchy and sweet.

You actually treat them like asparagus.

You can grill them.

- Oh really?

- Yes.

- Oh, okay?

- So you do have like two giant bunches of asparagus.

- I do, I do.

- Can we do something with that?

- Yeah.

What should we do?

I mean, this is like, the ends are really woody.

- You can actually blend them up.

I have a really good asparagus soup.

- You do?

- Yeah.

- We're using the ends?

- Yes!

- Okay.

- You wanna do that?

- Yeah, let's do that.

- Okay.

- [Rachel] All right, yeah.

- [Joel] What's that?

Spinach?

- [Rachel] This is spinach.

- So honestly, the spinach is still good, but as long as it's not slimy spinach and it's not like overly brown, I love it in like a frittata or sauteed up.

- [Rachel] Yeah.

You can saute it.

- Actually, can we blend it into our soup?

- [Rachel] Sure.

- Oh, we have mint.

I love mint.

- [Rachel] Ooh.

Can you use the pickle juice to make more pickles?

- Yes.

- I'm just gonna have a little sip.

- Okay.

(Rachel laughing) - So we're gonna make a soup using the ends.

- Yes.

I'll leave you the asparagus, but we're gonna use just the part that usually gets thrown away.

- Okay.

I was always taught like, just snap it and wherever it breaks off.

But it's not true!

- It's so not true.

- Like this part is green and people are wasting even more.

- Yeah.

What is that, a third of the asparagus?

- Yeah.

So I've found that like it is better to just kind of trim it off instead of that breaking thing.

- Totally.

(upbeat music) - So the trick is really make like, best friends with your freezer.

- But she's so cold!

She's not so friendly.

- So like these, like the top, I don't wanna mess with these onions.

- Yeah.

- But I don't wanna throw 'em away.

These are awesome for stock.

- Yeah.

- Or you can dry them out in the oven and make your own onion powder by grinding that up.

- Oh!

So you can just take the peels and grind it?

- Yes!

- What inspired you to start "Cooking Scrappy?"

Where did this come from?

- You know Jacques Papain?

- Of course.

- Okay.

So he is a little bit of a mentor of mine and he said, "This isn't like a new way to cook.

This is the right way to cook."

This is the old way, actually, the way grandparents cook.

- Yeah.

This is the way they would cook, right?

And it's true.

It's like, at cooking school and in restaurants, we're taught that nothing should go waste.

Cause that's not a profit.

- Yeah.

It's money.

- And then I read this stat that just really hit me like in the schnoz, like it just killed me, - Yeah.

- Which was one out of 10 people in America, so 10% of America go to bed hungry.

- Mm.

- Meanwhile, we're wasting almost 40% of the food that we make.

(bright music) So we've got garlic.

- Yes.

- Onion, and all those little asparagus bottoms.

- So, so far, besides the asparagus, it's kind of a pantry soup.

Like, I already had all this stuff already.

- Yes!

It's so easy.

So then we're gonna get to cooking.

You have frozen peas, which would be great.

And then this one I'm obsessed with, mint.

Amazing.

Mint and asparagus.

- Can have a little sniffle.

- Yeah.

Sniff that.

So one thing about mint is obviously, you peel off all the leaves.

So the stems are awesome in a tea.

You can just brew like, make your own mint tea.

Like, just smell the stem.

- That's my favorite tea.

- Just smell the stem.

It smells great.

- Well, I actually saw in your book that you make a salt with the stems of herbs.

How do you do that?

Like a mortar and pestle?

- Exactly.

So you can bash 'em up with a little bit of salt in there.

And then you can also tuck these into some sugar and make like a minty sugar.

- Oh!

- Yeah.

So we've got mint.

We've got the whole deal.

You ready to get cooking?

- I am.

How come you're not crying?

- I got the glasses.

I need the glasses.

- I wish my eyesight was worse.

(upbeat music) The soup started like so many good things too.

Sauteing onions and garlic and olive oil, along with those dry, woody, seemingly inedible asparagus trimmings.

Then a little water to steam and soften them up.

And if you love shatteringly crisp potato chips, do not throw out your potato peels.

- So think about this for a second, Rachel.

I mean, haven't you ever put these down the the garbage disposal?

- Every time.

- Exactly.

- Or in the compost.

- Right, and we're saving it like, it feels so good.

- Yeah.

Oh my god, it's like rescuing a puppy.

- [Joel] Totally.

- [Rachel] Ugh.

But it is something that like home cooks aren't taught.

Like you watch cooking shows, - Yes.

- You listen to radio segments and it's just like, no one talks about saving things.

And when my cooking show came out about seven years ago, everyone was thinking about it as like garbage.

- Yes.

- But now we're moving into this place of obviously being really sustainable, - Right.

- And thoughtful.

- And we're really moving into this really great spot of saving things, which is great.

Now to kind of spice these up a little bit.

- [Rachel] What about smoked paprika?

- [Joel] Yes, yes.

- [Rachel] Okay.

- All right, this looks great.

So make sure they're really spread out.

They all have room to breathe.

- [Rachel] Okay.

- Look at how scrappy this looks.

So this will be like a little crouton on top of our things.

We can wash our hands.

I'll pop these in the oven.

(upbeat music) - [Rachel] "Cooking Scrappy" requires a shift in how we see food and a shift in habit.

If you take a pause before instinctively tossing apple peels, you might save them to make apple cider vinegar.

Corn cobs become corn stock for chowder, and stale tortilla chips are great in chilaquiles.

Soon enough, what looked like garbage, will look like perfectly good ingredients.

- [Joel] All right, and just look at this texture.

Look at this.

- [Rachel] Ugh.

It's so smooth.

- [Joel] And the color is beautiful.

- Yeah.

- This was supposed to be trash.

- This was supposed to be trash.

Ooh, look at the pink with the green.

- [Joel] It is beautiful.

- [Rachel] Gorgeous.

And now we garnish this.

- Yeah, big, go tall with this.

- Okay.

This is, I feel like, is restauranty.

- Yes.

Isn't that kind of fun?

- [Rachel] Look at it!

- [Joel] Yes!

- [Rachel] Sorry, I'm yelling because I'm just, wow.

- Yeah, you just wanna do like a big stack, right?

- Ooh!

And would you do a little olive oil, too?

- Yes!

Do it.

- [Rachel] Oh my God.

- [Joel] Isn't that beautiful.

- [Rachel] This is beautiful.

Look, this looks so chef-y.

- One more touch.

Grab a little bit of smoked paprika.

- Yeah.

- And just put it over the top.

- Just poof it.

Mhm.

- [Joel] Right, and that just gives you a little bit of smokiness, a little bit of color.

Garbage soup has never looked so good.

- Love garbage soup.

- Should we try?

- Yeah.

(bright music) Mm.

The smoked paprika makes it.

- You think so?

- Mhm.

- And it's so creamy.

- Yes, and light.

It's just all the things.

- This is delicious.

- Mm.

- Mm!

- This is something where you'd wanna lick the bowl afterwards.

- I will be.

- Yeah.

- I will be licking the bowl.

- Yeah, yeah.

This is dairy free.

- Yeah.

- This is waste free.

- Gluten free.

- Gluten free.

And lemme just say, free.

- It's free.

That's true!

- Right?

You're saving all the money.

I love it.

- Thank you so much for coming over and teaching me how to turn my garbage into food.

I always thought that I was somebody who, you know, was scrappier than most, but I'm learning that I have a lot to learn.

- We all do.

Thanks for having me over.

I love cooking with you.

- Of course.

- Wanna cook with you next time.

- Cheers.

- I love it.

Cheers.

- You want me to feed you?

(Rachel and Joel laughing) - [Narrator] "The Nosh" was made possible in part with the generous support of Alaska Airlines.